caulfield12

The Mariners at least had identifiable franchise cornerstones in Ichiro, Felix and Cano. We had...Buehrle and Konerko, then Abreu. Nice covered modern stadium, trendy city with lots of tech companies...compared to now one of the older stadiums in a so-so area of the city, and certainly not the heart of an entertainment district. And then the Cubs’ Marginalization Effect, too.

Sure, but they also peaked at #8 in franchise value at that time. Where are they now? It would take another five consecutive years of 90-100 loss teams to fall into the 20’s.

The Mariners went out and added Cano and Cruz when they signed their new deal with ROOT Sports...already having Felix Hernandez under a long-term deal, when he was still a fireballer. The A’s have never been able to afford ONE big contract. The closest was Cespedes, but they go over $70-75 million as often as the White Sox.

If they are small market, it’s only because of a decade’s mind-numbing results on the field, busted draft picks, value-oriented Tier B free agent spending patterns and the lack of any visible marketing appeal (Abreu jersey sales lagging behind Madden, for example)...we’ve pretty much been conditioned as fans to think of the team that way. Heck, the Cubs’ bat boy jersey might be leading Moncada or Anderson. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t have one of the better media rights deals in baseball without having a significant potential market...despite the atrocious ratings...we’re a sleeping “mini-giant.” No excuse for not being a Top 8-12 franchise in the game if things were executed properly.

We did go on something like a 26-5 or 25-6 run in the middle of that year, lol.

They seems to have moved the M’s up despite being competitive this year...the Rays had a surprisingly good year record wise and still moved up 23 spots due to attendance/stadium issues highlighted by Pham and Dick Vitale this past week.

Miguel Cabrera also comes to mind, if we include team extensions...Alex Gordon and Cespedes, but those are expiring sooner than the really huge deals.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24367000/the-top-25-most-miserable-fan-bases-professional-sports Trailing only the Padres among MLB franchises...Reds 7th, Bears 9th, Mariners 13th Hey, at least ESPN didn’t forget us, finally!

How can anyone know until the first week of January is over with no signing?

Plan B is to bench Palka, the only young player who really came out of nowhere to show some promise? Sounds about right. What surplus value could he possibly have at that salary? OTOH, his agent might actually believe the White Sox are perhaps the only MLB team willing to play him at third? Wouldn’t it be simpler to just announce they’re moving Moncada to third?

Five playoff appearances in a row (assuming 2019, unless MIN pulls off a miracle) with that midmarket payroll is pretty, pretty good.

The looming presence of Jose Martinez will push him over the edge, though.

And plotting every single roster domino to fall in the Machado Sweepstakes...Of course, in that scenario, Pham would currently be bagging on the fan support at GRF, just like he did with the Trop. He seems to wear out his welcome everywhere he goes.

Shedded To get extremely drunk and forget/lose everything. He got shedded last night: He lost his keys, phone and dignity and ended up having to sleep in the shed until his girlfriend got home. Weve been talking about Dickerson for ages...and Martinez would probably end up hitting more like his father did for the Sox in the late 80’s.

$60-80 million for Pollock and $22 million to Moustakas for two years will be then cited as major reasons we couldn’t afford any premier free agents next offseason.

That will be the case for every DH or 1B because of how WAR works. 3.3 x 9 isn’t off by much. Win now move, but any team in the AL can fall victim to Houston, Boston and the Yankees. Plus, the Indians didn’t get any competition inside their own division down the stretch. Not unlike our moves for Thome and Javy in 2006. Win some, lose some.

That Santana deal isn’t going to matter much the next 2-3 seasons...I’ve said all offseason the Indians were going to end up in a better ultimate position for 2020-2022 than has been the conventional wisdom. Kipnis is their last bad contract, and this is his final year, with a buyout for next.

You’re talking about using connections. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Guillen geting Garcia to sign an extension, Abreu/Moncada/Renteria influencing Robert, Contreras and El Duque with Viciedo or this Shakespearean play we’re putting on to entice Machado (more like The Death Of Stalin at the current moment), it’s all using your network or connections to advance the organization’s ability to win games.

The “best” trade turned out the worst so far (Eaton) and the player everyone worried we waited too long to deal gave us our two best prospects in Jimenez and Cease...where just one was expected, at best.

I’m guessing you were probably a teenager (or younger) in 2004 and don’t recall how we got Contreras and Garcia...

Yes, and why did he agree to sign the extension in the days following that trade, instead of seeking a long-term extension in free agency? Without that family relationship, no trade...because Garcia would have ended up leaving just like Machado had we traded for him in 2018 or even the prior offseason. Wikipedia is your friend.

It’s a lot bigger than just Moncada and Giolito, but there’s no point to rehash half the roster. An important note here, the Astros STILL managed to have one of the five most improved farm systems this year in the middle of building a juggernaut. The Cubs, not so much. The same thing happened in Boston after the first two WS titles for Epstein. Too many big, bloated contracts. Veterans, complacency, Chicken Gate. Btw, that’s one thing the Astros and Dodgers are getting out of the business of offering, albatross dead weight franchise-stalling deals.

Sure, but the one Venezuelan connection we got out of Ozzie Guillen over the years was Freddy Garcia. It’s a nice theory, but we’ll see how it all holds together when/if they dump Abreu. If this angle was THAT overwhelming, we’d have at least a legit 50/50 shot with Machado because of Renteria, Vizquel, Alonso, Castillo, Colome and perhaps the 2nd most Latin American talent of any organization in MLB besides the Padres.

Even though odds are high that a deal like that would come to be regretted later, getting a contract signed with one of those two is the only measure of success that 95% of Sox fans are going to care about.

Ironically, the Cardinals are probably thanking their lucky stars Price and Heyward spurned their offers. Even teams with 2nd or 3rd best attendance in MLB have a problem when going up head to head against the Red Sox and Cubs. It was actually a bit shocking he chose the Sox over StL. Maybe the single most surprising event for the Sox this decade.